Energy In-depth: Lion Oil wins $72 million jury verdict over losses from ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline

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LION OIL WINS $72 MILLION JURY VERDICT OVER LOSSES FROM RUPTURED EXXONMOBIL PIPELINE: Lion Oil Co. won a nearly $72 million jury verdict in the U.S. District Court in El Dorado, Arkansas Thursday. The dispute related to insurance coverage for business interruption losses of Lion Oil stemming from the rupture of the Exxon Mobil Corp.-owned pipeline running from Louisiana to Longview, Texas. The pipeline was the primary source of crude oil feedstock for Lion Oil’s refinery in El Dorado, Arkansas. The Western District jury found that the rupture caused Lion Oil’s damages.

Lion Oil Co., a subsidiary of publicly traded Delek US Holdings, Inc., sued its fourteen insurers in 2013 over essentially identical all-risk policies it bought from each of them, arguing that the policies covered business interruption losses resulting from the ten-month pipeline shutdown. Lion Oil kept the facility up and running during the shutdown, but was damaged $72 million in lost earnings and expenses for alternative transportation, sales and storage.

ENTERGY NAMES NEW CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Entergy Corp. recently named Paul Hinnenkamp as senior vice president, chief operating officer for Entergy Corporation. Hinnenkamp replaces Mark Savoff, who announced his retirement earlier. As a member of the Office of the Chief Executive, Hinnenkamp will report directly to Leo Denault, chairman and CEO. In his role, Hinnenkamp is responsible for executive oversight of safety and human performance, fossil generation, transmission, system planning, capital projects management and compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection standards. Earlier this year, Entergy reported the need to add approximately $3.7 billion in new generation resources consisting of six new power plants by 2020 and 635 miles of new and upgraded transmission by 2022.

DOE RELEASES ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY, SELECTS ‘PREFERRED ROUTE’ FOR CLEAN LINE PROJECT: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed Plains and Eastern Clean Line transmission project, a controversial $2 billion electric transmission line that proposes to deliver up to 3,500 megawatts (MW) of wind power from the Oklahoma Panhandle region to communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and other states. Based on the analysis presented in the executive summary of the 88-page EIS, the Energy Department identified a preferred route for the direct current transmission line and preferred locations for a delivery converter station in Arkansas as well as a converter station and associated project facilities in Oklahoma.

BECHTEL SELECTED TO BUILD ONE OF LARGEST COAL-TO-NATURAL GAS POWER PROJECTS IN U.S.: Industrial engineering and construction giant Bechtel has been selected by Panda Power Funds to build a new 1,124-megawatt combined-cycle, electric generating facility as part of one of the largest coal-to-natural gas power site conversion projects in the United States. The Hummel Station project will be located at the former site of the coal-fired Sunbury power plant near Shamokin Dam in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. The 400-megawatt, 65-year old Sunbury plant was retired in 2014, clearing the way for the utilization of more efficient and environmentally-sensitive power generation technology.

Bechtel is providing project management, engineering, procurement, construction, and startup services for the new power plant, while its consortium partner, Siemens, is responsible for the primary power generation technologies, including the combustion and steam turbines, generators, and heat recovery steam generators. Construction is due to start in November 2015 and will take approximately 30 months. Once complete the plant will power approximately one million homes in Philadelphia and the New York metropolitan area.

ARKANSAS GAS UTILITIES FILE WINTER RATE COSTS, CUSTOMERS TO SEE WINTER BILLS FALL BY 20%: Customers of Arkansas’ three natural gas utilities will see winter bills that are more than 20% lower than last year as natural gas futures have fallen well below $2.40 per million British Thermal units (mmBTUs) ahead of this year’s heating season. A week ago, CenterPoint Energy, Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp. and SourceGas all filed gas costs reports and rate schedules for this winter with the Arkansas Public Service Commission, according to John Bethel, executor director of the state regulatory agency. Read more here.